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From left: snow, three men, and several vehicles with large tires.

The U.S. Army Tried to Build a Secret Nuclear City under Greenland’s Ice

Long before Greenland’s shifting ice threatened sea level rise, it doomed one of the military’s most audacious Cold War projects.
Painting of a city surrendering to Napoleon.

Uses & Abuses of Military History

On the value of the discipline and its applications.
Black and white photo of D-Day Normandy Landings

For the Anniversary of D-Day - Blitzkrieg Manquée? Or, a New Mode of "Firepower War"?

Why and how did D-Day succeed? The question has given postwar historians no peace.
A soldier walking an old woman through a destroyed city.

D-Day’s Forgotten Victims Speak Out

Eighty years after D-Day, few know one of its darkest stories: the thousands of civilians killed by a carpet-bombing campaign of little military purpose.
Drawing of George Washington Williams

George Washington Williams’ "History of the Negro Race in America" (1882–83)

A work of millennial scope by a self-taught African-American historian.
The sillhouette of a Civil War statue on a night sky.

The Spirit of Appomattox

Why is Shelby Foote's Civil War subject to so much contemporary debate?
Black soldiers in battle.

Double V: Military Racism

Today, the military is perhaps the largest integrated institution in the US. But how it came to be this way reveals a history of racism and resistance.
Seashore in the Fog, detail, Caspar David Freiderich, c. 1807.

By Stratagem and Hard Fighting

The historical record reveals the real circumstances that led to the improbable capture of eleven British ships.
A digital composite images shows troops landing at Anzac Cove in Turkey during the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.

Ukraine’s War Is Like World War I, Not World War II

The West is using the wrong analogy for Russia’s invasion—and worsening the outcome.
Lithograph of African Americans in prayer as Liberty lays a wreath on Charles Sumner’s casket. By Matt Morgan, from Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1874.

Reconciliation Process

When Charles Sumner died in 1874, a bill he had sponsored two years earlier threatened to overshadow his legacy.
Cover of "Liberty Is Sweet," featuring a painting of a man holding a gun to two soldiers on horseback.

Fighting the American Revolution

An interview with Woody Holton on his new book, "Liberty is Sweet."
Image of George Washington in front a map of the United States.

The Storm Over the American Revolution

Why has a relatively conventional history of the War of Independence drawn such an outraged response?
A drone flying low

Slouching Toward Humanity

Historian Samuel Moyn contends that efforts to conduct war humanely have only perpetuated it. But the solution must lie in politics, not a sacrifice of human rights.
The First Hague Conference in 1899: A meeting in the Orange Hall of Huis ten Bosch palace – collections of the Imperial War Museums.

Oh, the Humanity

Yale's John Fabian Witt pens a review of Samuel Moyn's new book, Humane.
Picture of soldiers from WWI.

There Is More War in the Classroom Than You Think

Hitchcock and Herwig discuss their findings on the teaching of war in higher education.
Guard checking pockets of American soldier prisoners

Prisoners of War

During the war in Vietnam, there was a notorious American prison on the outskirts of Saigon: a prison for American soldiers.
An American propaganda leaflet dropped ahead of Curtis LeMay’s firebomb campaign over Japan.

Narrative Napalm

Malcolm Gladwell’s apologia for American butchery.
William Tecumseh Sherman.

The Real Sherman

A new biography of William Tecumseh Sherman questions his reputation as the brutal "prophet of total war."
Monument of a fist holding a broken shackle

Atlantic Slavery: An Eternal War

Julia Gaffield reviews two books that discuss the transatlantic slave trade.
Women surrounding a Confederate flag.

The Guerrilla Household of Lizzie and William Gregg

White women were as married to the war as their Confederate menfolk.

Ground Zero: The Gettysburg National Military Park, July 4, 2020

157 years after the famous battle, Gettysburg endured another invasion.

These Newly Digitized Military Maps Explore the World of George III

The last British monarch to reign over the American colonies had a collection of more than 55,000 maps, each with their own story to tell.

When Young George Washington Started a War

A just-discovered eyewitness account provides startling new evidence about who fired the shot that sparked the French and Indian War.

Moral Courage and the Civil War

Monuments ask us to look at the past, but how they do it exposes crucial aspects of the present.
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The Civil War and the Black West

On the integrated Union regiments composed of white, black, and native men who fought in the Civil War's western theatre.

The Class Politics of the Civil War

By naming a common enemy the Union Army was able to build and then steer a coalition of Americans toward the systematic destruction of slavery.

The Times Are A Changin’

Reports of the death of nuanced interpretations of the Civil War have been grossly exaggerated.
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Here Comes the D-Day Myth Again

The Allied invasion of France was an important step in the war against the Nazis. But it was by no means a turning point.

One of D-Day’s Most Famous, Heroic Assaults May Have Been Unnecessary

Pointe du Hoc’s importance as a military objective has become the subject of heated debate as the invasion’s anniversary approaches.

Why We Need a New Civil War Documentary

The success and brilliance of the new PBS series on Reconstruction is a reminder of the missed opportunity facing the nation.

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